Pacing the hallway near the security checkpoint of the small airport, Shane waited for Paige Merritt’s puddle-jumper to arrive. It was four hours west to the Denver International Airport, the closest major hub to Red River Ranch, so Quinn had booked her on a ten-seater plane to Garden City, which was just under an hour drive to the south. That was the thing about Hazard Falls, it took forever to get anywhere from there. Hell, the closest Walmart and McDonald’s were about thirty-five minutes away.
His mind flittered back to breakfast a few hours ago. After what’d happened in the kitchen last night, Shane had never gotten around to telling Tuck about their new house manager. So right before the ranch hands started strolling into the huge dining room with its twenty-seat, honey-stained, oak table, Shane had mentioned it as he poured milk into Arianna’s bowl of Cheerios.
“By the way, we have a new housekeeper starting today.”
Tuck’s gaze shot to Shane’s, before he set down the two orange juice cartons he’d retrieved from the refrigerator. “Yeah? Who? I didn’t know you found anyone else to interview?”
“Does she know how to make pancakes?” Arianna asked, her face lighting up at the prospect.
Shane chuckled at his daughter. “I don’t know, but I’ll ask for you, pipsqueak. Now hurry up and eat. I’m going to drop you off at school on the way to Walmart and then the airport.”
Standing on the other side of the table, Tuck raised an eyebrow at his husband. “Airport?”
“Yup. To pick up the housekeeper. Quinn called yesterday and had someone who was interested in relocating. Thought she’d be perfect for us.” While he’d been talking, his gaze went everywhere but to Tuck’s face. He knew without looking the man was scowling at him.
“One of his clients?”
That growled question said that the first thought Tuck had was the same one Shane had had while on the phone with Quinn. Finally, his gaze met Tuck’s. “Former. She’s no longer with the program and no one is looking for her.” That’s all he’d say about how Paige knew Quinn in front of Arianna. “I trust him, and I checked her out on the internet. She’s just trying to put a failed marriage behind her and start over. She’s got small town experience and can cook and run a house. What more do we need to know?”
His stare dared Tuck to argue with him. Ever the pessimist, it wasn’t often Tuck agreed with Shane on large issues without having all the facts and weighing the pros and cons for several hours first before making a decision. But they were out of local options when it came to filling the position. “I told Quinn it would be on a trial basis. If she doesn’t work out after a week, we’ll start looking for someone else. Okay?”
Relenting, but obviously not happy about it, Tuck nodded as the backdoor to the kitchen swung open and their employees started rolling in. After breakfast, Tuck would be taking some of the men out to the northern pastures where the fencing needed to be repaired before the cattle could be rotated there for the fresher grass. Later in the week, they’d be busy as all hell as they rounded up the young steers and heifers that hadn’t been branded yet. It would be a two-day job to put the Red River Ranch’s symbol on all of them for identification purposes. They used two back-to-back, combined Rs, seared into the cattle’s thick hides, as their brand, in addition to “notching” the animals’ right ears. The two distinct markings would help identify them if they were ever stolen.
“Daddy?”
Taking his usual seat at the head of the table, Shane turned his attention to his daughter. “What, sweetheart?”
“Is the new housekeeper pretty?”
Shane’s eyebrows shot up as he wondered where the question had come from and what difference it made to his daughter. Then he thought of the pictures he’d found of Paige Merritt, formerly Winthrope, online. Pretty wasn’t the word he would use to describe her . . . downright gorgeous was more like it. Her honey-brown hair had been longer in older photos, but more recently she’d had it cut so it just reached the top of her shoulders. Her blue eyes, that’d once sparkled while she’d stood next to her asshole husband during some elite, social event, had dulled when she’d been photographed coming out of the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse several weeks ago. But in all the pictures he’d found on the web, she’d carried herself regally. Once again, Shane worried it wouldn’t take long before the woman found them all beneath her and demanded a ride back to the airport and the more high-class civilization she’d become accustomed to in San Francisco.
“Yes, I saw her picture. She’s very pretty, Arianna. Why?”
“No, I mean is she pretty on the inside? Don’t you and Papa always say being pretty on the inside means more than being pretty on the outside?”
Ruffling his daughter’s hair, Shane grinned. Any doubts he had that he and Tuck were raising her right disappeared. They might go through some rough times in the years ahead, but they’d go through them together.
The sounds of people entering through the door from the tarmac brought Shane back to the airport. He eyed them as they walked past the TSA agents, on their way to the baggage claim or parking lot. First was a tired-looking couple, each carrying a sleeping, toddler-sized twin, followed by three men in jeans, flannel shirts, shit-kickers, and cowboy hats. The last person was the one he was waiting for. About five feet six, Paige Merritt was slender with generous curves in all the right places. Her hair was not as elegantly styled as it’d been in the society-page photos he’d seen from two years ago, but it still had him itching to see if it was as soft as it looked. He didn’t know why he was surprised to see she was dressed in comfortable jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and well-worn cowgirl boots—and not the fashion-forward kind that would never come close to a pile of cow manure. Her sapphire blue eyes searched the people standing around the terminal before settling on him. An unexpected burst of electricity shot through him as she smiled tentatively and stepped toward him.
“Hi. Are you Shane or Tucker Wilson?”
Shaking off the instant attraction he felt toward her, he reminded himself she was his employee now. Nothing more. Holding out his hand, he said, “Yes, hi. I’m Shane.”
“I’m Paige Merritt. It’s nice to meet you.”
She shook his hand, and he tried to ignore how soft hers was. “It’s nice to meet you too. Let me take your bag for you. I assume you have more luggage than this.”
After giving him her small carryon bag, she hiked her purse higher on her shoulder. “Thank you. And, yes, I have two more.”
“The baggage claim is this way.” Unlike the huge airports, it wasn’t a far walk from one end of the main terminal to the other.
They waited in uncomfortable silence for her bags to come out, and for the first time in a very long time, Shane found himself unsure what to say to a woman. Hoping to break the ice, he asked, “So . . . um . . . how were your flights?”
“Uh, a little bit of turbulence in and out of Denver, but other than that they were fine.”
Again, neither of them spoke for a few minutes, and Shane was grateful when the luggage appeared. Handing back Paige her carry-on, Shane grabbed the two large suitcases she’d pointed out to him. It didn’t escape his notice they appeared to be expensive. Hazard Falls might be in the middle of nowhere, but that didn’t mean a few of the town’s wealthier women didn’t like to flaunt the designer brands they’d gotten while traveling or ordering over the internet.
Paige followed him to his pickup truck, with the Red River Ranch logo on the doors, where he secured her bags in the small back seat, since the covered bed was filled with his purchases from Walmart. By the time he shut the door, she’d already climbed into the front passenger seat and was putting on her seat belt. Shane made sure none of her body parts or anything else would get caught before he closed her door and walked around the front of the truck. Minutes later, they were on the highway, heading north. Once they were cruising along, Paige turned slightly in her seat to face him. “So, tell me about the ranch and what my duties will include. I feel like we’re doing this backward. I got the job and now comes the knee-shaking interview part where I try to impress you without throwing up.”